Tiny Tot School

By: jolenecmom in Announcement

Because I’ve found it so hard to keep all 3 my blogs up to date, I’ve combined my Tiny Tot School and Lapbook Mania blogs with our “Main” Monsters Ed Blog. I will not be deleting these blogs, however, I will no longer be posting on them.

By: jolenecmom in Tiny Tag Alongs & tot school

~Corbin is currently 33 months old~

I bought Corbin the Teddy, 3 piece, puzzle a while ago, but he never seemed interested in it, so I put it away. I hauled it out for him together with the Elephant, 3 piece, puzzle he got for Christmas.

He loved them, especially the Teddy puzzle. We worked on feelings and now we all have to have “happy faces”.

His “happy face”

Deep in thought, LOL

By: jolenecmom in Corbin & Tiny Tag Alongs & tot school

~Corbin is currently 33 months old~

This week Corbin and I played with shapes and colours. He loves these two activities I bought from him from Kidz Only

We started off with the threading which was something he struggled with. The threading string was so thin he had a tough time getting it into the little hole on the shapes, so we changed the type of activity to shapes and colours. I’ve got bigger beads and thicker string for him to practice his threading on, so I’m not too concerned about this right now. He first had to sort the shapes into shapes and then into colour. He totally loved this.

Kate-Lynne taking notes *giggle*

He also adores this shape sorting game, also from Kidz Only and spends hours playing and sorting all the colours and shapes.

Sorting the colours and being very proud of himself

Sorting shapes

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By: jolenecmom in Kate-Lynne

I can’t believe how fast time has flown. She has developed a wonderful sense of humour and just loves her big brothers. She has brought even more joy into our lives. I can’t believe my baby, my last baby, is going to be a year old in just one month. Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Duncan gave the tots each a star for being good during school today, LOL

Kate-Lynne and Duncan, just look at her face, LOL

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By: jolenecmom in videos

I made these customised “newspapers” for each of the children for Christmas and just had to share. I made one for each child, you can see my Monster’s page here

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By: jolenecmom in Activities and games & Corbin & Planning & Practica

We are using the Practica program and will be working through the activities with Corbin.

The activities are split into six categories, as follows:

Group 1: Major Muscles and Coordination
Group 2: Fine Muscles and Art
Group 3: Visual Perception
Group 4: Auditory Perception
Group 5: Mathematical
Group 6: Language and Thinking

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By: jolenecmom in Activities and games & Box Day & tot school

I have an online buddy who sells Kidz Only products and I ordered a whole bunch of stuff for our Tot School.

All the games and activities we received.

This is a cube puzzle makes up 6 puzzles. Each side of the cube makes up another puzzle

A clock peg puzzle. Corbin has already played with this one and loves it.

A number matching puzzle

Lacing numbers, letters and shapes

Shape sorter, we’ve already had a ton of fun with this

These games and activities will be used during our Tot School Lessons.

Have a look at our Monsters Ed blog to see the Sand Art kit.

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By: jolenecmom in Kate-Lynne & Practica & Tiny Tot Life School

Kate-Lynne is 9 months old

Practica Activities: Age 9 months

This week we will be doing the following (from the Practica Parent’s Manual) over the next few weeks. This will be done during the course of the next few weeks. Kate-Lynne will not have “formal” tot school at this stage.

1. Intellectual Development
2. Curiosity
3. Play
4. Awareness of Self
5. Sensory Perception
6. Emotional Development
7. Physical Development
8. Independence
9. Manual Dexterity and eye-hand Coordination
10. Social Development
11. Listening Skills
12. Language comprehension
13. Speech Development
14. Communication

By: jolenecmom in Corbin & Practica & tools for tots

Corbin is 31 months old

Practica Activities: Age Range - 2 - 3 years

This week we will be doing the following (from the Practica Parent’s Manual)

1. Major Muscles and Co-ordination

Balance and Laterality (Chapter 7.1.6, 10 & 29)

2. Fine muscles and Art

Hand-eye coordination (drawing & threading)
Manual dexterity/Creativity (play-dough & sand play)

3. Visual Perception

Colour Consistancy/perception (Colour of the day)
Visual Closure (shapes)

4. Auditory Perception

Auditory discrimination/conceptualising/association (loud/soft, object sounds)

5. Mathematical

Counting to 10

6. Language and Thinking

Classification (Chapter 7.6.2)
Active Language Development (Chapter 7.6.6 & 24)

By: jolenecmom in Practica & tools for tots

WHAT IS PRACTICA?

Practica is a completely comprehensive programme, which offers parents more than 4000 age-appropriate games and activities to play with their child from birth to 7 years old. These games focus specifically on the balanced development of all 50 the skills needed for school readiness, while providing unlimited family fun times. The programme is available in English and Afrikaans.

I bought the Practica system when Duncan was 3 years old and instantly fell in love with it and when I was pregnant with Corbin I bought their Pre-Birth Programme and subsequently used it in my pregnancy with Kate-Lynne.

Practica can be used from pregnancy right up to 7 years old. The manual is the heart of the Practica programme and contains thousands of ready-to-play games. All you need do is page to the age of your child and start playing! Games are described practically and easily, informing parents which skill is being developed or practiced in each game.

The whole programme is packed in an attractive, durable wooden toy box (Approx 81×32x44cm - size of old army trunks). Apparatus are of a high quality and most are packed in durable wooden boxes with sliding lids and plastic bottles. Many of the items and all of the cards are unique to Practica and not available elsewhere. Cards are all laminated and will not tear or become dirty. The activities in the Parents’ Manual make use of all the apparatus over the whole 7-year period that Practica is used, ensuring maximum value for money and overall balance in development which is not achieved by buying ‘loose’ toys.